Thinking about buying these speaker components. Advice, criticism?

[swarb]

Originally Posted by Kaotic Lazagna

Ah, I never messed with bridging an amp.

If that's the case, they should have just did the same layout as the tC since it ran the same system, but to me, it sounded better in all aspects (lows, mids, highs). Then again, having 3 speakers per door probably would make it rattle even more.

That is what sound deadening is for. Instead of the sound traveling through the door panels and bouncing everywhere, the sound deadening will just reflect it towards the passenger compartment and isolate the sound in one single direction towards your ears.

Imagine a speaker in a thin plastic cup. Then imagine it in a glass cup. That is sound deadening. Bad example but close enough.

Now imagine the speaker turned halfway in a plastic cup and half in a glass cup facing away from you. The plastic is the dash, the glass is the windshield. Another bad example but close enough. You will hear the resonance from the two cups and it will make it sound harsh. Clear sharp(treble) sounds would have micro echos from bouncing everywhere including the windshield.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Originally Posted by swarb

That is what sound deadening is for. Instead of the sound traveling through the door panels and bouncing everywhere, the sound deadening will just reflect it towards the passenger compartment and isolate the sound in one single direction towards your ears.

Imagine a speaker in a thin plastic cup. Then imagine it in a glass cup. That is sound deadening. Bad example but close enough.

Now imagine the speaker turned halfway in a plastic cup and half in a glass cup. The plastic is the dash, the glass is the windshield. Another bad example but close enough.

Oh, I get the concept of sound deadening/insulation (ever been in a Prius c before? )

I just didn't think the tC had that much more sound insulation in it since it was (to me, a louder sounding car for road noise, engine/exhaust noise, etc).

[Chimera]

didn't read the entire thread, but having both pieced together a bunch of parts, and then having run real components I would recommend biting the bullet and getting a set of component speakers right out the gate, saves you a lot of heart ache related to too many speakers playing the same things.


also, I 2nd the recommendation on the ktp-445u bridged to 90W on a set of 2 way or 3 way components, its what I am running now.

[irocz0r]

Originally Posted by Chimera

also, I 2nd the recommendation on the ktp-445u bridged to 90W on a set of 2 way or 3 way components, its what I am running now.

Okay, let's say I get 4 ohm component set of tweeters and 6.5" woofers. Then I get a 4 ohm amp to replace the factory amp.

Are the tweeters going to work right spliced into the factory wiring? The factory 2 ohm amp is supposed to run the factory 4 ohm tweeter and factory 4 ohm 4" dash mid speaker in parallel, thus bringing the impedance to 2 ohms.

This might work if I just run the door speaker and dash tweeter, but I want to replace the 4" dash mid as well. How do I do that? If I hook a 4 ohm mid and a 4 ohm tweeter up in the dash to the factory wiring, connected to a 4 ohm amp, I don't think it'll work because it's wired up to work for 2 ohms.

Also, what do you guys mean bridging the amp? No idea what that means.

[MuseChaser]

A couple other things to consider..

A speaker's rating in Ohms is the overall impedance load that it presents to an amplifier. The smaller the rating, the less efficient the speaker is, and the more power it takes to get to a specific decibel level, and the more difficult a load it is for an amp to drive. If you have an amp that is comfortable driving 2 ohm loads, it won't have any trouble driving a speaker with a higher impedance rating (3 ohms, 4 ohms, whatever).

An ampilifier's rating is usually stated as watts at certain load impedances. The lower the impedance, the more watts the amp provides, but cheaper amplifiers typically have trouble driving low impedance loads and can get unstable. 2 ohm loads are rare in home audio, but more common in 12v car audio systems. You'll notice that amps rated as 90w @ 2 ohms are also usually rated 45w @ 4 ohms, provided they're designed well.

This site has a decent introduction to the relationships between speakers and amplifiers:

https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/...nd-amplifiers/

If you start just randomly changing out drivers (the speaker units), you'll most likely drastically change the balance of the system; more efficient speakers will be louder than less efficient ones, present different loads to the amplifiers, and change the overall timbre/eq of the OEM system. The stock system was carefully designed to provide a fairly natural sounding frequency response, even if it does lack the ability to play at very loud volume levels that many folks seem to crave.

Coaxial speakers refer to speaker units that have two (or more, but usually just two) drivers whose centers lie on the same axis.. imagine a small funnel nestled inside a large funnel. The small funnel reproduces the higher frequencies (tweeter) while the larger reproduces the mids and lower (midrange or mid/low or woofer). They have a couple advantages; you can fit two drivers in the same space as one used to take up, they usually do a better job with the high end that just similarly-sized single driver (due to the smaller embedded tweeter), and don't require an outboard crossover (thereby keeping costs and the complication of the installation down). There are disadvantages too; lack of an outboard crossover can make tailoring the sound to a specific installation a bit more difficult, and purity of the high end can suffer because the vibrations from the larger driver can muddy the high end. In a car, that ain't really a big deal.

Bridging an amp means combining two channels of an amplifier into one channel. This doubles the available output power, but at the expense of raising the impedance load it can handle. Some amps can be bridged fine, and others aren't designed to be bridged. Always best to consult the amp's docs. For instance, an amplifier that is rated as 45wpc ("watts per channel") @ 4 ohms would also probably be rated as 90 wpc @ 2 ohms. Bridged, it could deliver 180w @ 4 ohms mono, or 90 wpc into 8 ohms mono.

Almost everything I typed is an oversimplification; depending upon amp and speaker design, the figures don't always translate as strict doubling. Additionally, speakers almost NEVER deliver a consistent impedance load across the frequency spectrum; a 4 ohm speaker may present an overall 4 ohm load, but may be down to 2 ohms or lower in the low frequencies, and much higher in the upper frequencies, or have peaks and dips in the impedance throughout the entire range. Matching speakers to amplifier capabilities is paramount.

Personally, I like the factory stereo (I've got a 2013 FR-S, w/ probably the worst of all the OEM versions). At low volume levels, it sounds pretty natural and even. When I'm on the highway with all the noise that this car creates on its own, I'd damage my hearing turning up the stereo loud enough to enjoy it anyway, so I usually don't listen to much music when I'm cruising at highway speeds.

Just some thoughts.. hope it helps a bit.

[Chimera]

if you really really want to keep the and upgrade 3.5 in the dash I would recommend something like jl c5-653.. or go with OEM audio+'s solution, which for you might be the best set of options, they have stages of improvements for various price points, and they include plug and play features, amps, and dsp for the car already.


that said, right now I actually ditched the 3.5s, I have infinity 3002cfx, but they are unplugged. I prob wont plug them back in unless I go with a active solution someday. active setups are another can of worms I wont get into here.